Post navigation

12 thoughts on “How to Confront Excuse Makers”

Great questions to ask in response to excuses! I have an employee who mentions fear of failure. Next time, I plan to ask about past experiences with overcoming fear. This way she is solving the problem instead of me. Thanks, Dan!

Thanks Elaine. It’s great to have people solve their own challenges. We may actually propagate excuse making when we solve people’s challenges for them.

Just a note. Fear is often answered by creating a safety net. “Who might help?” is one way to get someone on their team. I recall a person who was reluctant to step into a new role. I asked who might help. She identified someone.

I called the ‘helper’ and asked if he might be a go-to person who could step in if things started going sideways. He said yes.

Identifying the helper was enough to answer her excuse.

Interestingly, she never called on their helper. It was just comforting to have someone who was on her team and open to being helpful. Best wishes

While I agree with the first and third excuses as ones that are destructive, I think we need to be careful as labeling the I’m not ready and I’m afraid as I’ll fail as excuses, especially if its coming from a genuine place. I’d rather have someone be that upfront with how they are feeling about a project and a task, than looking for other ways not to confront their concerns. I’ve had employees say those very statements to me, and its always become an opportunity to explain their concerns, provide feedback, and let them know that the entire team is available to help them succeed.

There is a point where those statements do become excuses when they are repeatedly used. At that point, I look to others who are more committed, and also explore the commitment of those providing the excuses.

This is an excellent conversation. I liked John’s observations. Sometimes I wonder all such motivational, inspiring gurus, coaches, make people feel that to admit a real feeling of a risk is negative. Is it not a fundamental requirement that a coachee trusts the coach and can reveal his inner, true, genuine feelings? I have faced this situation. I have hidden a feeling only because of the fear that it will be branded as an excuse, and I will get a dressing down or face unnecessary embarrassment.

In the UK, it’s considered that about 80% of staff are unengaged, or actively disengaged in their work. Confronting an individual about their excuses is like emptying the sea with a bucket

The “I’m afraid I might fail” excuse isn’t necessarily an excuse: if you have been hammered more often for trying and failing than you have avoiding taking on the work, it isn’t an excuse, it’s a viable strategy for personal safety. Failing isn’t always viewed positively – remarkable as it may sound, quite a lot of organisations regard failure as a matter for punishment, not a tool for learning.

Thank you for sharing this, this will be a great issue to address! One question: How would you respond to someone with the first problem of “I didn’t have time”, and they identified that they are trying to be too friendly and over-committing.

Excuse makers not only hurt themselves, but they prevent others from achieving their goals. Work is so matrix-oriented now one person can have a severe impact on many others. At some point one too many excuses are made, which translates into letting the employee go to make excuses at another employer.

It is also important for the leader to analyze the situation to see if and how they may have contributed to their employees making excuses. For example – when a leader gives an employee too many projects and then expects the employee to treat every project as a top priority, the leader shouldn’t be surprised to see incremental progress and missed deadlines followed by excuses.

Wow! That is a powerful message! It seems to me that people are afraid of taking a risk and becoming succesful and rather be safe and not maximize their potential. It definitley is not easy to break habits of bad time managemet or addiction to technology…